by Gail Sattler
His wife poked him then turned to smile at Daphne. “They have lots of great things, not all with bacon.”
Jeff’s cheeks turned red and Natasha bit back a grin, making Daphne wish she knew the joke.
Beside Natasha, Ashley smiled. “If there’re six of us we can still fit in the little private alcove booth in the corner. We have a standing reservation for it every Sunday.”
Daphne’s first reaction was to decline and say she needed to go home, but she held back her reply. She’d told herself that she needed to start going out again, and this was a good way—a casual setting in a relaxed atmosphere.
Aside from the fact that it was obviously three couples, when she and Cory were not a couple. But since they were together, that would be their assumption. They had no way of knowing that Cory was only a friend of her brother, helping her get back on her feet.
Daphne turned to Cory, who was still seated. “I think a bacon cheeseburger sounds good. What about you?”
Jeff made a fist pump in the air. “Yes!”
Natasha turned sideways to give her husband a dirty look, then turned and smiled at Daphne. “Don’t mind him. He goes a little crazy when someone mentions bacon.” She lowered her voice. “It’s his comfort food, like women use chocolate. He ate a lot of bacon before we were married.” She covered her stomach with one hand and grinned. “It’s a good thing I don’t gain weight easily.”
Cory stood. “That sounds good. I’d love to grab a burger. We’ll meet you there.”
When his friends were out of earshot, Cory turned to her. “It’s only a few blocks away, but it doesn’t have a parking lot. Whenever I join them, rather than try to find a big enough parking spot on the street I leave my truck here and walk. So that leaves us two options. Three, actually. You can drive and meet me there, we can both walk or we can both go in your car.”
She pictured the tight fit. “Would you squeeze yourself into my little car again?”
Cory shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”
She looked down at her feet—her sneakered feet—and shrugged her shoulders. “I dressed casual like you said, and I need to get more in shape, so let’s walk.”
This time he walked at a pace comfortable for her, which gave her a chance to ask a few more questions about his church. Much too soon, they arrived at their destination.
She followed him inside to join his friends, already seated. The oddly configured room had one large booth in a recessed corner, which sequestered it away from the other four tables in the small room. Apparently the majority of the business was take-out.
Daphne tried not to look surprised to see both ladies sitting on one side of the table and the two men on the other.
Ashley patted the empty seat at the end of the bench of what was apparently the ladies’ side. “Sit here. We decided that this was the best way for six of us.”
As Daphne and Cory slid in, Natasha rested her elbows on the table, linked her fingers, then leaned forward and rested her chin on the cradle her fingers made. With a dreamy sigh, she looked across the table at Jeff. “This way we can look at each other. Isn’t it kind of silly when couples sit beside each other when they go out? Then you can’t really see each other properly.”
While Natasha looked across the table at Jeff, Jeff leaned toward Natasha, something like in Lady and the Tramp before they shared the spaghetti. Just as all Natasha’s attention was glued to Jeff, all Jeff’s attention was glued to Natasha.
Daphne looked across the table at Cory, who was staring at Jeff as if he’d lost his mind.
A man poked his head out from the window to the drive-thru area. “Four usuals?” When he saw six of them, his eyes widened. He cleared his throat, stepped out and approached them. “Sorry. What can I get for you folks?”
Daphne looked up at the menu board, although she didn’t know why. She already knew what she wanted. “A bacon cheeseburger platter, please, with coffee.”
The man put his notepad back in his pocket without writing anything down. “And for you, same thing, super-sized, with gravy on the fries. Right?”
At Cory’s nod, the man turned his head toward the kitchen. “Anita! Make that six number eights for table five! One super-sized with a side of gravy!”
After the man returned to the kitchen, Daphne didn’t contribute much to the conversation, but she did enjoy watching Cory’s friends. They all had fun being together, and when they saw she didn’t really feel like talking, they respected her preference not to say much and included her without asking questions.
Being with them showed her the kinds of things she should have looked for in a relationship—few of which she’d had in the relationship with Alex, now that she thought about it. What impressed her the most was that even though nothing serious was being discussed, she could see the capitulation, or sometimes negotiation, before they moved on to the next topic.
Until the meals came and Natasha reached for the ketchup.
“Hey!” Jeff reached forward and covered Natasha’s hand with his, freezing the ketchup bottle between them. “You always get the ketchup first. It’s my turn.”
“Ladies first,” Natasha retorted then stuck out her tongue at him.
“I need to test it first to see if it’s the brand you like, or the kind I like.”
“The kind you like has too much sugar, and the store brand is cheaper.”
While they continued to debate various ketchup issues, Dave reached between them and grabbed the bottle. At his touch, both let go but kept bantering. Dave extended the bottle toward Ashley. “Here. While they fight over it, you take it.”
Ashley shook her head. “No, you always give it to me first. This time you use it first.”
Dave extended it further toward her. “No, I had it first last time. It’s your turn.”
Cory let out a breath of air. “Oh, for crying out loud,” he muttered, taking the bottle from Dave’s hand, since Ashley still hadn’t. “You two are worse than Chip and Dale. Here,” he said as he held it out toward Daphne. “Your fries are going to get cold by the time they decide who gets it first. You take it.”
Daphne looked at the bottle. Automatically she almost told him to use it first since it was in his hand, but he had gravy with his fries and didn’t need it.
“Thanks…” she muttered as she accepted it. As she dotted ketchup onto her fries she watched the other two couples as they continued to banter, completely ignoring their meals. All of them looked as if they were trying not to laugh, yet no one gave up.
That kind of thing had never happened with Alex. She’d always given in to whatever he’d wanted because he had always been so serious. They’d never had play fights and now that Daphne thought about it, they’d never had a real fight, either. Alex had simply expected that everything would be the way he deemed best and, not wanting to make issues, Daphne had always given in before anything had escalated. Until the first time she’d told him no—and that had changed her life.
It was the kind of person she was. She gave in too easily most of the time.
Today, that was going to stop.
Finally the ketchup bottle got passed around, and they shared stories of favorite books and movies as they ate.
When it was time to leave, they found themselves standing in a group at the door, ready to go their separate ways.
Jeff and Natasha whispered between the two of them and then Jeff turned to everyone else. “If no one has anything better to do, you’re all welcome to come over to our place for the afternoon.”
Dave and Ashley looked at each other, then turned back to Jeff. “Sure, we’d like that,” Dave said.
Cory looked toward Daphne. “I’m okay with that if you are.”
She didn’t know him well, but earlier she’d heard Jeff talking about a new barbecue with some exciting new features he wanted Cory to look at, so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what Cory preferred.
If this was the time to see what he would do, she knew what she had
to do.
She turned to Jeff. “Not this time, if you don’t mind.” She let her words hang, and held her breath.
Cory shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, maybe next week, if I don’t see you sooner. Have fun. Catch you later.” Before more words were exchanged, he turned back to Daphne. She quickly said her goodbyes and they began walking back to the church parking lot.
She didn’t say anything, waiting for him to question why she’d declined the invitation knowing he wanted to go.
As they walked he checked his watch. “What would you like to do for the rest of the afternoon? Anything in particular? The day is still young.”
The words were out before she could stop them. “If you want to go back with your friends, I’ll just go home.”
“I’d rather spend the day with you. I can see Jeff’s barbecue anytime.”
“Okay.” Except she really hadn’t thought about doing anything for the day. She’d really planned to go home after church, but had been sidelined by the lunch invitation. “How about if we go to the park for a walk?”
He turned to her and smiled. “We were just there yesterday, but if that’s what you want, sure.”
She waited for him to make another suggestion about going somewhere else, but he didn’t. On the positive side, being Sunday afternoon, the park was likely to be much more crowded than the day before. “How about if we go on the nature walk this time?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
As they walked, he talked about the various species of squirrels and some of the varieties of birds they would see.
“We should take both vehicles,” he said when they reached the church parking lot. “It would be silly to have to come back later.”
“I agree. I’ll see you there.”
She noticed that he followed her the whole way to the park. It felt strange to have the monstrous black pickup behind her. If they’d had something to make a ramp, she probably could have parked her car in the back of his truck and still closed the tailgate.
Just as she pulled into the parking lot, her phone sang out that Rick was calling.
She quickly pulled into a parking spot and answered.
“Hey, I was getting worried about you. You’ve been out all day. Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation. “After church I went out for lunch with Cory and his friends, and now we’re going for a walk at the park.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Rick, I’m okay. Really.”
“Okay. Just don’t be too late.”
“I won’t be. Thanks for calling.”
Getting out of her car, she realized she did feel okay. Not one hundred percent okay, but more okay than she’d felt in a long time.
Hopefully, at least for the rest of the day, it would stay that way.
* * *
With his big truck following Daphne’s small car, Cory felt like an elephant trailing a mouse. But since she’d brought her own car, this was the only way to make sure she got home safely.
After the park they’d toured the Seattle Aquarium and given it wasn’t summer hours yet, the aquarium closed at 6:00 p.m. Since they’d been walking all day, both of them had worked up an appetite, so they’d gone for a late dinner and ended up doing more talking than eating, which was a lot.
Her brother had called a number of times to make sure she was okay. Despite her assurances, Rick didn’t stop calling until Cory took the phone and told Rick to quit worrying, that he would escort Daphne home to make sure she was safe.
Then they’d lost track of the time.
Now it was nearly ten.
Sure enough, when they pulled up in front of the house, Rick was standing on the porch, his arms crossed, looking every inch an annoyed cop, even out of uniform.
It was time to face the music.
Cory climbed out of his truck at the same time as Daphne got out of her car. When she walked toward Rick, Rick’s expression tightened. “I expected you to be back at least before dark,” Rick snapped before Daphne had barely opened her mouth. He then turned to glare at Cory.
Daphne reached forward and rested her hand on Rick’s arm. “This is my fault, not Cory’s. Don’t be mad at him.”
Rick stiffened even more. “The last time I talked to either of you, Cory said he’d have you home ‘shortly,’” he said, adding a sarcastic emphasis to the word. “That was two and a half hours ago.”
Even though Rick’s anger was unreasonable, it was probably justified considering her history. Therefore, Cory needed to deal with this right now, before it got any worse. But he couldn’t say what he wanted to in front of Daphne.
He turned to her. “It’s okay. But I think Rick and I need to have a man-to-man.”
She looked up at him. He wasn’t sure how to read her expression, but it looked as if she thought he was a few turnips short of a full load.
He nodded once to show her he had everything under control. She turned and slowly made her way into the house, looking over her shoulder at him a few times before she made it all the way to the door.
The second the door closed behind her, Rick narrowed his eyes. “I know I asked you to take her out, but I only meant once. There’s stuff you don’t know. Important stuff.”
Cory leaned back against the post for the porch and stuck his hands into his pockets, wanting to take the least intimidating stance possible while Rick acted like a protective mother bear. “She told me. I do know.”
Rick’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Cory. “What do you know?”
“About the night with Alex. What happened. And how you got there at the last possible second and stopped him.”
Cory could almost see the thoughts running through Rick’s head. First the shock that Daphne had told him, then his face tightened, probably reliving the vision of breaking into the car to save his sister, and then a sudden sobering as though he was trying, too late, to hide how he felt.
Rick sighed and his whole body sagged. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe she told you. She hasn’t told anyone. Not even her best friend, or at least who used to be her best friend, because her best friend is, or rather, was Alex’s sister.”
“I know.” Cory nodded. “She says everyone thinks it’s her fault that Alex moved away so fast. When she started to give a few hints of what happened they accused her of lying, so she didn’t say any more. I know she’s completely broken off contact with everyone. That’s one reason why I took her to my church this morning. So she could meet some new people in a safe environment.”
Rick turned, not looking at Cory as he spoke. “Over the past week or so she’s been talking about starting to get out again. She hasn’t talked about dating, but she has said that when she does, she’ll be looking for a geek-type guy who’s short and skinny and wears glasses.”
Cory gulped. Pretty much the opposite of him, which was probably why Rick had told him. But as far as subtle hints went, he wasn’t taking it. “I’d still like to keep seeing her, if she’d like to keep seeing me. We talked about joining a swim club together on Tuesday nights.”
“Why?”
Cory tried to look relaxed, but the tension in him shot to levels like the last time he’d come face to face with a cougar that had been backed into a corner. He didn’t think this was a good time to tell Rick that he was falling in love with his sister.
He shrugged his shoulders. “We could both use the exercise.”
Rick’s eyes narrowed. “Really?”
“Yeah. Swimming is great exercise. Cheap, too.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I think Daphne would have fun. It’s with people, but you don’t really need to talk to anyone. Like going to the mall, except it is good exercise.”
“Why all this talk about exercise? Daphne doesn’t need to lose weight. The opposite, she’s a little thin.”
“She needs to gain some strength, and she wants to build herself up a bit. As much as possible, anyway.”
�
�Why with you? You’re twice her size. At least.”
Cory didn’t need a reminder of that. “I don’t know. I’m only glad she wants to go with me. I…” This was really not the time to say how his feelings for her were growing every day. “…like swimming.” Aside from the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a chlorinated pool, which meant it had been many years.
Rick glanced to the door, turned back to Cory and spoke barely above a whisper. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I don’t know how well she can see without her glasses.”
Not being able to see wasn’t something he’d considered. He didn’t know what it was like to need corrective lenses. His own vision was 20/20.
“It can’t be too bad, or she wouldn’t have agreed. Can it?”
“I don’t know. It’s not something we’ve ever talked about.”
“She won’t have to read. All she has to do is go in a straight line, and there will probably be lane markers. I can’t imagine it would be that bad.”
Even though it was obvious she wore glasses, Cory had never considered that the lack of good vision without them might hinder her efforts to defend herself.
Now he had something else to consider when she needed to try to rebuild her self-confidence and be able to keep herself safe. Regardless, they could still have some fun at the pool. “I’ll take good care of her. Besides, the Queen Ann pool is a safe and non-threatening environment.”
Rick rammed his hands into his pockets. “I’m just saying…I know my sister. She hasn’t been out with people for a while, and she’s always been a little shy. She tends to get lost in a crowd. For the past six months, except for her job, it’s been just her and me, or she stays home with our parents when they’re home.”
“There’s nothing she needs to be afraid of when I’m around.”
“But you won’t be there all the time. What then?”
Cory didn’t know, but he planned to work on that. “I’ll just have to see how it goes. I’ll let you know.”